John Adams Quotes (143 Quotes)

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Courage and perseverance have a magic talisman, before which difficulties and obstacles vanish into air.

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.

The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power

Now, my friend, can prophecies or miracles convince you or me that infinite benevolence, wisdom, and power, created, and preserves for a time innumerable millions, to make them miserable forever, for his own glory Wretch What is his glory Is he

As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed.

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute.

We are excited to expand our relationship with Lake Forest Hospital. This significant outsourcing contract is reflective of our leadership role in IT services for the healthcare industry and the confidence that healthcare organizations have in our solutions. We look forward to becoming a close, strategic IT partner with Lake Forest Hospital.

That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the whole world

I knew I needed to tell this story ... and discovered the depth of my ignorance in doing so.

We're not going to put someone in a position where it's going to be harmful of their performance this weekend, but at the same time the team will represent itself proudly.

Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws

My critics feel there was a lack of fairness in the opera, because the Palestinians are treated with romantic harmonies and choruses of longing, and the Jews are treated unfairly because all we hear about them are their bodily ailments, ... And, yes, you do hear about Marilyn and Leon Klinghoffer's bodily problems, like their hip replacements, because that's exactly the sort of thing that a retired person on a cruise would talk about.

A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.

A government of laws, and not of men.

All the public business in Congress now connects itself with intrigues, and there is great danger that the whole government will degenerate into a struggle of cabals

It was a faith-based group that brought him to this country as a refugee from Cuba and sent him on a path toward the American dream,

Ontario is so far behind in newborn screening that this is a useful baby step, but there are significant gaps in this announcement,

I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all.

The die was now cast I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.

Indeed, Mr. Jefferson, what could be invented to debase the ancient Christianism, which Greeks, Romans, Hebrews and Christian factions, above all the Catholics, have not fraudulently imposed upon the public Miracles after miracles have rolled down in torrents, wave succeeding wave in the Catholic church, from the Council of Nice, and long before, to this day.

We are going to check whether signing up people automatically will help stem the denial and apathy about flood risk which can discourage people from registering for flood warnings.

Jobs and job training will be critical next year. Retraining and education will be key in order for us to be able to keep the companies we have and be able to attract new businesses.

This is an awesome subject that can't be dealt with in a rational way. It's about flesh-and-blood people screaming at each other and loving one another.

I cannot conceive such a Being could make such a Species as the human, merely to live and die on this earth

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, everybody had a hobby. It takes a lot of time. I've been teaching 4-H kids how to build planes for 30 years.

Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

The old boys are really looking forward to this. Some of them have gone out and bought new berets or blazers just for the occasion, so they'll look their best.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.

America is destined to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs

Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.

The insanity defense is so rooted in our common law as to be protected under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.

It's unethical for a lawyer to plead his client to the death penalty. As long as that's there, the defense can't do anything.

I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved-the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced.

Genius is sorrow's child.

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

You are apprehensive of monarchy I, of aristocracy. I would therefore have given more power to the President and less to the Senate.

I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last 30 years than Tom Paine.

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens understanding and softens the heart.

I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice or ambition, or even the desire of fame.